About the Authors

Luigi Michaud

Affiliation Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

Angelina Lo Giudice

alogiudice@unime.it

Current address: Institute for the Coastal Marine Environment, National Research Council (IAMC-CNR), Messina, Italy

Affiliation Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

Mohamed Mysara

Affiliations Unit of Microbiology, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN), Mol, Belgium, Department of Bioscience Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

Pieter Monsieurs

Affiliation Unit of Microbiology, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN), Mol, Belgium

Carmela Raffa

Affiliation Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

Natalie Leys

Affiliation Unit of Microbiology, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN), Mol, Belgium

Stefano Amalfitano

Affiliation Water Research Institute, National Research Council (IRSA-CNR), Rome, Italy

Rob Van Houdt

Affiliation Unit of Microbiology, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre (SCK•CEN), Mol, Belgium

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LM. Performed the experiments: LM PM CR SA RVH. Analyzed the data: LM ALG MM PM NL SA RVH. Wrote the paper: LM ALG MM PM SA RVH.